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Country: Mexico / Italy Release Date: 2007 Record Label: Solitude Productions Track list:
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Majestic Downfall / Ansia - Split
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Majestic Downfall: |
Ansia: Ruben - Drums Steven - Guitars Ethere - Vocals, Bass, Synth |
As soon as the first notes of Majestic Downfall hit my eager ears, I leaped three feet in the air with joy. Pardon me for my inappropriate reaction towards this form of doom music but I couldn't contain myself after listening to band that sounded like an old forgotten favourite - Solar Lovers by Celestial Season. Yes, Majestic Downfall happen to be heavily influenced by the best era of Celestial Season and to an extent by the melodic doom/death act Saturnus, Anathema's Serenades, and okay, even My Dying Bride for good measure. Brace yourself then, for naturally this kind of music is pervaded with notions of romantic sweetness and consequently, the sadness of irrevocable loss.
The three songs which we have been provided with here are in fact from their The First Abyss demo and last at least seven minutes each. Intricately structured, they flow at a fairly good tempo without boring the crap out of you and respectfully slow down whenever a doleful lead or melody is being played. Vocals are mostly done in that gruff growly voice we are all familiar with and through it emotions are expressed reasonably well. The songs progress in an impulsive manner and somehow even the parts of contrasting moods in them never seem out of place. They are ably supported by the production, which might not be as booming as Solar Lovers', but is sufficiently heavy and clear. Even though the music on each track is different, the songs are of the same nature and I am afraid dissecting them separately will rob them of their collective enthusiasm and passion. All I can say is that despite being unoriginal, the music of Majestic Downfall is instantly adorable and boldly explores the familiar array of emotions, hope-inspiring as well as despair-ridden.
Majestic Downfall, being a Mexican band, do exceedingly well in recreating semi-melodic European death/doom and end up sounding very convincing and passionate at it.
Ansia, the other band on this doom split are from Italy and unlike Majestic Fall play atmospheric funeral doom metal. Their music is comparable to that of the Finnish bands like Shape of Despair - on their first release and if you were to lift the oppressiveness from it - and a less sorrowful Tyranny but with a much more airy atmosphere. Blend in it the dark and slightly depressive black/doom aura of Deinonychus and some vague faint echoing sounds of the surroundings a la The Bleeding Light and you should be in the position to imagine Ansia's sound fairly accurately.
Playing gentle piano notes with light synth accentuation, “Part I” begins in a sweet and innocuous manner before plunging hopelessly into the funeral doom pool. Indeed, it feels like settling down in a bathtub filled with cold water to pacify a mind preoccupied with wistful thoughts, and after fully submerging your head in it, your thoughts are suddenly given a new form of expression. Your past memories, stirring lightly in your mind like ripples on the water's surface, seem intangible just like the world on the other side of the aqueous barrier. “Part II” is a mellow but poignant instrumental that nearing the halfway mark takes sudden a dark turn, the remaining few minutes of the song only consisting of weird droning sounds of laboured deep breathing for instance, suspended in an eerie industrial ambience. “Part III” resumes the funeral doom plodding, the music enveloped in an expansive emotionally-charged atmosphere has long black metal-edged tortured vocals seemingly emanating from a seized throat piercing through it every now and then. Like in the first track, this 15-minute song takes you through its various cleanly laid out stages including the purely ambient ones where your sense of desolation gets overwhelming, and it ends not without having you completely empathising with the feelings that it is striving to evoke through its music.
July 10th, 2008
    
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